and they won't let you do tricks. No really... uh, well it used to be true, I think.

Hamish MacDonald of Ft. Lauderdale, FL showing off a handle pass while LEASHED to his kite. Hamish did many of these while leashed in yesterday at the Islamorada Invitational kiteboarding competition in the Florida Keys. He was a judge at the competition but took some time out on the water during a break. Hamish is a outstanding Pro rider and pushes the envelope routinely. As a result of firing hard into extreme tricks he had his bar ripped out of his hands a couple of times. The leash nicely stopped the kite dead in the water each time, then he just relaunched the kite from the water. Simple.

It works for Hamish ...

what's your excuse for not using a well tested and maintained kite leash?

NOTE: The leash shown allows you to do handle passes and is for PRO and ADVANCED RIDERS ONLY to reduce the odds of getting into trouble with it. There are MANY leash systems out today. Find one, test it and maintain it well to improve the odds of endless time of great shredding on the water with fewer sessions in the School of Hard Knocks.

Last edited by RickI on Tue Jan 29, 2013 4:03 am, edited 7 times in total.

Hamish is a Pro rider and has custom built this system for his own use. It is a short roller bar to begin with and doesn't use a mechanical loop connection in for obvious reasons (it is hard to do handle passes shackled or QRed in). It also doesn't have a chicken loop althought it might be possible to rig a roller bar with one. Strong edgers love this approach. I used one of his 20 inch(?) roller bars flying his prototype 28 m kite at the Matazas Blowout. It actually turned that blimp in the light winds that we had.

Anyway, there must be a stopper ball inside a fairlead at the top of the pulley. It is a "reride" type or flow-through leash system. You drop the bar and it flys up the line allowing the kite to flag out flat downwind. You don't have to use this concept with a roller bar and can use it with other types of flow-through bars. The competitive riders like short bars to facilitate pulling off tricks. This design is Hamish's baby and for all I know it is patented. He deserves credit for putting it together and tuning it to where it works.

Last edited by RickI on Tue Apr 01, 2003 4:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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